Reflecting on the outcome of the 2016 Presidential election, the authors of the text assert: “The events of 2016 also raised major questions about the future of America’s political parties and the
viability of America’s electoral processes” (Ginsberg et. al. 2017: 233). In an essay, describe the roles that political parties and candidate characteristics play in mobilizing electoral
participation in contemporary U.S. elections and analyze how individual characteristics of voters (such as socioeconomic status), political socialization, electoral laws, and electoral rules
influence voting likelihood. Where possible use examples from the 2012, 2014, and 2016 campaigns for national office discussed in the assigned text and in the lectures/video supplements.
Requirement:
I expect you to write your essay based on the assigned readings, on class forums, and on lectures and other video materials presented on the web site. I do not expect you to supplement these
sources with outside research. Please don’t use outside sources!
Please make sure that you cite from all the required sources. That is, at least one citing from the book, one citing from the forum, one citing from the lecture and one citing from the video.
I also expect you to provide appropriate citations to your sources. If this is the text, you should use parenthetical endnoting with specific page references (e.g. Ginsberg, et. al. 2014: 41). If
you are citing a lecture, you should provide the lecture number. Videos should be named using the title from the web page. Please cite forum posts by the author’s name and the date of the post.
Reading:
Ginsberg, et al., chapters 5 – 11
Video:

http://www.cc.com/video-clips/h68it3/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-exclusive—nate-silver-extended-interview

http://www.cc.com/video-clips/3pwzi5/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-colbert-super-pac—not-coordinating-with-stephen-colbert
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/otywae/the-colbert-report-colbert-super-pac—issue-ads—trevor-potter